Sajal to officiate for now

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Sajal Chakraborty on Wednesday. (Prashant Mitra)

Ranchi, April 30: The state government has named Sajal Chakraborty chief secretary in-charge amid speculation over the last 48 hours that chief minister Hemant Soren was considering development commissioner Sudhir Prasad for the job.

Chakraborty, a 1980 batch IAS officer, was additional chief secretary in charge of transport and civil aviation departments. The senior most officer among 10 chief secretary-ranked officers of the Jharkhand cadre — six of them are posted in the state while four are on central deputation — Chakraborty will retire only on December 31, 2016.

“The Election Commission has cleared our proposal to notify Sajal Chakraborty as the in-charge chief secretary of the state,” said S.K. Satpathy, principal secretary in the personnel department.

Chakraborty, known as an efficient administrator, has had a chequered career. He was suspended for four years from July 2008 when he was named accused in the fodder scam. Four years later in August 2012, he was acquitted by Jharkhand High Court.

Yesterday, the chief minister’s office had cleared Prasad as the next chief secretary, while Chakraborty was to replace him as development commissioner. But that proposal was withdrawn at the last minute.